The remaining Haruhi fans have been less than delighted to find the “first new Haruhi imagery in 4 years,” coming from Kyoto Animation themselves, is in fact to be part of the PR campaign for a pachinko machine – not the glorious 3rd season return many were hoping for.

As part of the “HaruhiHunting” publicity campaign for the upcoming “Fever – The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” pachinko machine, fans are expected to hunt down (in various locations, both physical and virtual) and snap 707 “fragments” in order to unlock the release of some exclusive new Haruhi imagery.

This new imagery is being hailed (by promoters at any rate) as the first new imagery to be officially published in the 4 years since the movie, and is produced by no less than KyoAni themselves.

The vexing question of what happens with respect to Haruhi’s seiyuu seems to have been left in abeyance for now, as only music and imagery features so far.

As to whether all this means some anime resurrection of the franchise is any closer, if the fan response is anything to go by it seems more likely the franchise is now completely dead, as pachinko has a (considering Evangelion and the like continue to spawn machines, not altogether deserved) reputation as being a lucrative franchise graveyard.

Yeah, that was a thread of hope for us I guess in terms of her ability to be a seiyuu still. There is no problem if she wants to expand her career to other facets. Well... no problem to reasonable individuals, maybe not Otaku. It's ridiculous, we get that she didn't reach a popularity level that she may have hoped for and we get that it also was a risk that backfired on her existing career, but that still never changed that she was a good voice actress and is still welcome to do the characters that deservedly got her recognized.

She got that lead roll earlier, I think as long as she doesn't stop, she'll continue to grow and be a better actor. If Hayden Christensen can still get work after Star Wars and prove he is actually a relatively good actor against our expectations, she can do the same.

Anyway, hopefully she finds success in another career. It's understandable, but still sad what happened to her. If the Japanese entertainment industry was larger or more forgiving then perhaps she'd have the opportunity to work her way up, but as it is her reputation as a troublemaker will keep her nixed from any major future jobs.

It was never proven that she harassed the bassist, that was mostly just speculation. I think she probably did ask him, but that the issue has been blown out of proportion, just like the rest. Adult people have sex. Get over it.

I find it hilarious how people care so much about what Aya Hirano has done in her personal life. About 95 percent of famous people have done something questionable in their career, people accept it and move on. In Japan some people take it so badly, it's like she insulted their mother or something.

rolf. People are forgetting "endless eight"? Those insane otaku are exactly who buyed their products. Now, withouth them...it won't sell even close to those numbers.
Just look at what they are doing now. A collab for a pachinko.

PPS. It was a well-deserved scandal that could've seen criminal persecution of Aya Hirano. Would any of you even side with a man who has banged all three band members and is pressuring the fourth one? That's basically the corrupt idol managers, who are no better than pimps.
Furthermore, she had fights PR agency and the business and her fans in general. Those were far more understandable in some cases, and there should be more second chances in this worl, and it is understandable that there is a lot of pressure); but destroying her career is a natural consequence of lack of stability and burning all her bridges.

There are Seiyu out there with the ability to mock her voice well enough that can replace her, with the stability and impulse control not to break everything.

It's not unreasonable to want an ending to a much beloved series. Just do one final season to bookend it so people can move on. So many anime shows are left unfinished these days, even ones that sell well. Stuff like Magical Index needs a new season too, despite shifting well over 15k copies a volume, more than an average show does.

No one said anything about actually watching it. Ignoring it won't redeem the fact that it happened in the first place. The 6 useless eps on 2 BDs in the $300 BD box will always remind those fans of that.